Furry Dance
I spent this last weekend in Cornwall with several uni friends. One of my friends lives just outside of Cadgwith near Helston and invited us down to watch the festivities for Flora day. It was a wonderful weekend and the Flora day was quite amazing. It stems from a pre-christian tradition and is a day of processional dances through the town. It starts at 7am and the final dance is at 5pm. We didn't get into watch the 7am dance, but we were there for the 8:30am Hal-an-Tow which is the only different dance during the day. We also saw the children's dance the the Furry dance which is the formal midday dance. The town band accompany each of the dances except the Hal-an-Tow, but they only play one tune the whole day! Apparently they play the tune over 1000 times while marching over 16miles. (http://www.helstontownband.co.uk/helston_flora_day.php)
The Hal-an-Tow
Children's Dance
Midday Dance and Town Band
The town is specially decorated for the day with most window frames and doorways having greenery and floral decorations around them, the pubs are open all day and most people who have left the town for work, study or other reasons try to get back for it. It felt a little like a cross between and Anzac day and Australia day. It was wonderful and I'm so glad Donna asked us down for it. I would never have known about it otherwise.
Other than the Flora day we went to a couple of different beaches, saw the most southern point of England and generally just enjoyed a weekend of reasonable weather before having to start back at uni. The essay is now in, and I am meant to have started on research for my thesis. This all means that over the next few weeks this blog will get really boring as I'll be at home most days just reading for the thesis. I'll try and find something interesting to post once a week, but no promises. As this is likely to be the last post with lots of photos for a while I'll finish with some of the beach photos from this weekend.
The Hal-an-Tow
Children's Dance
Midday Dance and Town Band
The town is specially decorated for the day with most window frames and doorways having greenery and floral decorations around them, the pubs are open all day and most people who have left the town for work, study or other reasons try to get back for it. It felt a little like a cross between and Anzac day and Australia day. It was wonderful and I'm so glad Donna asked us down for it. I would never have known about it otherwise.
Other than the Flora day we went to a couple of different beaches, saw the most southern point of England and generally just enjoyed a weekend of reasonable weather before having to start back at uni. The essay is now in, and I am meant to have started on research for my thesis. This all means that over the next few weeks this blog will get really boring as I'll be at home most days just reading for the thesis. I'll try and find something interesting to post once a week, but no promises. As this is likely to be the last post with lots of photos for a while I'll finish with some of the beach photos from this weekend.
posted by bronwyn | 3:13 PM
1 Comments:
dear owner of website how can you dare to say the tune is boring because it stays the same this festifle isent a every day thing its a celebration to represent how helston was made or found i have lived in this town for 20years and i ahve never been so descusted by one person apart from you i have danced the kidz dance and it is a frill to be part of that festifle it proves how much we helston people love this town for keeping this going for so long and im sure your friend who lives near there will tell you this HELSTON FLORA DAY IS THE BEST FESTIFLE IN THE WORLD and dont you forget it if you ever make another website about flora day make shore you write something good because flora day is perfect in every wey luv victoria egan
p.s its better then chrismas and if you want to email me back do it to this email address vickiestar20@hotmail.co.uk
Post a Comment
<< Home